The Irish show jumping team of Bertram Allen (Castlefield Vegas (ISH), bred by John Clarke, Co Cavan and owned by Martin Egan), Cian O’Connor (Cadiz, owned by Ronnoco Jump Ltd), Michael Duffy (Zilton SL Z, owned by Katherine Duffy and HMF Equestrian) and Shane Sweetnam (Karlin Van’t Vennehof, owned by Seabrook LLC) finished as runners-up in the $150,000 four-star Nations Cup at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) in Florida last Saturday.

Irish riders wore black armbands on the night in memory of well-known Irish trainer, breeder and owner Deirdre Bourns from Co Galway who sadly passed away earlier last week.

The first round saw all four Irish riders jump perfect clear rounds, leaving team Ireland on a score of zero heading into the second round.

Shane Sweetnam and Cian O’Connor kept up their good form with two more clear rounds, however four faults from Allen and Duffy meant Ireland had to settle for second place with the home team USA claiming victory on a perfect zero score.

The winning American team were presented with the Denis Quinlan memorial trophy. Denis, who passed away in September of last year, was originally from Co Limerick and moved to Wellington, Florida. During his time there, the Irish man was instrumental in starting Nations Cup jumping in Florida and in supporting Irish riders.